The Fantastic Four To Start Testing Actors Before The End Of The Month

After years of delays and rewrites, director Josh Trank's upcoming The Fantastic Four reboot is finally ready to get on its feet. X-Men: Days of Future Past co-writer Simon Kinberg has completed the latest version of the script, and now Variety reports that the production will start testing actors before the end of the month - which another way of saying "in the next 10 days."

The trade has posted a shortlist of the actors who will be trying out for the principal roles in the comic book movie, and surprisingly they are names that we have been hearing about for months now. Michael B. Jordan, who previously worked with Trank on the low budget sci-fi thriller Chronicle, is reportedly "attached" to star in the movie as Johnny Storm a.k.a. The Human Torch, but he will be going in to test alongside potential castmates to test chemistry. The Spectacular Now's Miles Teller has already confirmed that he has met with the folks behind the production about potentially taking the role of Reed Richards a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic, though other young stars targeting the role include Game of Thrones stars Kit Harrington and Richard Madden. On the female side, actresses going out for the part of Sue Storm a.k.a. Invisible Woman include Kate Mara and Saoirse Ronan (which means that either Sue or Johnny - who are siblings in the comics - could be adopted in the new movie).

The character that remains a big question mark is Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing. Not only do we not know about any actors who are going out for the part, we don't even know how the character is going to be portrayed in the new film. Will it be an actor in a suit, like the Michael Chiklis version in 2005's Fantastic Four, or will the production be using advances in technology to create The Thing using motion capture/pure CGI? It's a mystery that will hopefully reveal an answer in the coming weeks. Whatever they end up going with, we have to assume it will be better than the giant poop monster that was in the 1994 Fantastic Four movie.

With the release date pushed back to June 19, 2015 from March 6, 2015, The Fantastic Four is now planning to have production start at the end of March in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In order to allow enough time for all of the actors to get in shape and ready for their respective parts, one would assume that the casting process is going to move quickly. Stay tuned as more news comes out about the film over the next few weeks!